For any new Wes Anderson film, some things are certain: the art direction is going to be gorgeous, scenes will have central framing, and every little detail will be carefully thought out. That distinctive visual style is one of the things fans love about Wes Anderson’s work and that distinct visual aesthetic is on full display in THE PHOENCIAN SCHEME, which explores the vast moral emptiness of the lives of the ultra rich, through a tale of a sort-of Howard Hughes-ish/tech billionaire-type character in the same 1950s-ish world as ASTEROID CITY. The dark comedy, written by Anderson from a story by him and Roman Coppola, is a tale of international business and personal intrigue with commentary on the wealthy, as one of the world’s richest men tries to put together financing for one last big project before the next assassination attempt gets him, with the reluctant help of his daughter and sole heir, a nun, and a tutor-turned-assistant.
We meet wealthy businessman Anatole “Zsa Zsa” Korda (Benicio del Toro), one of the richest men in Europe, as he has just survived another assassination attempt. which forced him to crash-land his private plane in a cornfield. Korda treats the repeated attempts as routine, the cost of doing business, but this time, he thinks he might take steps in case one of them actually succeeds.
He decides to make his only daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun, the sole heir to his estate. The two do not really know each other, as she was taken to the convent and raised by Mother Superior (Hope Davis) after her mother’s death. And she actually isn’t a nun yet, as she still has to take final vows, but as she was raised in the convent, it seems to be a sure thing. And she isn’t Zsa Zsa’s only child – he has nine younger sons too, who he leaves in charge of a tutor and never sees, although they live in his mansion. There are no mothers, and there seems to be questions about what happened to them.
The daughter resists the idea of being his sole heir and especially his plan that she needs to come along on his latest enterprise, a big infrastructure building project in a country called Greater New Phoenicia, to learn the business, which requires trips to visit various potential investors around the world, including his half-brother, Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch). When a new Swedish tutor, Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera) who turns up to teach the sons, he gets pressed into service as ZsaZsa’s new assistant. He also becomes smitten with the nun-to-be.
Eventually, she does agree (else, there is no movie), and del Toro’s ultra rich businessman ZsaZsa, Threapleton’s nun Liesl and Cera’s tutor-turned-assistant Bjorn embark on an international adventure involving scheming business rivals, recalcitrant tycoons, potential terrorists, dangers, and ever-growing number of assassins. At the same time, a group of American business interests, led by Excalibur (Rupert Friend) secretly both engage in espionage and sabotage of Zsa Zsa Korda’s plan.
All this takes place in a beautifully theatrical-looking Wes Anderson world, those special self-contained spheres that Anderson creates so well. Nothing looks real but all looks colorful, fascinating and perfect, thanks to Director of Photography Bruno Delbonnel, productions design by Adam Stockhausen, and costume design by Milena Canonero. A bold classical music score, supplemented by original music by Alexandre Desplat, forms a perfect musical backdrop.
The cast is very good but Michael Cera is a standout. Cera is so perfect for the Wes Anderson world, it is surprising he hasn’t been in one of these films before this. Also very good is Mia Threapleton, who is saintly but stubborn, quick of wit and of action, with unexpected skills for a nun. Liesl may be a nun-in-training but, oddly, she does some very un-nun-like things, like wear bright red lipstick (real nuns don’t wear make-up). Benicio del Toro is deadpan as cigar-chomping millionaire nearly throughout, a studied unflappable demeanor but with a hint of sadness, maybe a lurking conscience.
The film features a small army of stars in minor, even cameo, roles, and some larger ones too. Among the potential investors in the Phoenician Scheme are Riz Ahmed as Prince Farouk of Greater Phoenicia, Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston as American businessmen Leland and Reagan (respectively), Mathieu Amalric as nightclub owner Marseilles Bob, Jeffrey Wright as ocean-going ship’s captain Marty, and Scarlett Johansson as ZsaZsa’s second cousin. Richard Ayoade appears as a idealistic “radical freedom fighter” called Sergio, who turns up at a couple important moments.
The extensive cast makes it seem like everyone is in this film. And, yes, that includes Wes Anderson favorite Bill Murray, in intermittent black-and-white fantasy sequences in Heaven. Oh yeah, on top of all that is goings-on on earth, Zsa Zsa periodically ends up in the afterlife, either dreaming or in near death, where he sees his grandmother (Carmen Maja Antonie), meets God (Bill Murray) and faces some questions from various characters, such as Willem Dafoe as Knave and F. Murray Abraham as Prophet, doubtless a reference to those movies of the ’30s-’40s where characters question or defend their life choices in similiar supernatural interludes.
Unlike THE FRENCH DISPATCH, this isn’t an anthology film and it isn’t a tale with multiple layers of story-telling like ASTEROID CITY and GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. However, like those later two it feels like an homage to classic film genres, in this case, a globe-trotting adventure/action/intrigue one, but there clearly is something more going on here.
There is a lot of busy-ness (and characters) in this plot. While the plot doesn’t make all that much sense, Wes Anderson does seem to be saying something about the very wealthy, those whose wealth is so great, they hardly notice the other human beings who occupy the planet as they go about their schemes and grand plans, suggested by Zsa Zsa’s slogan on the poster: “If something gets in your way, FLATTEN IT.
As one small example, in the assassination attempt in the film’s opening sequence, Zsa Zsa sits in the middle of his luxurious circa-1950s private plane, while his assistant sits at the back. When a bomb goes off at the back of the plane, killing the assistant and blowing a hole in the plane, Korda races to the cockpit and sits in the co-pilot seat, calmly rattling off orders to the pilot. The panicked pilot (Stephen Park) argues back and complains, resulting in Korda telling him he’s fired and then hitting the seat eject button. The pilot is luckier: he as a parachute, but it illustrates the point. Zsa Zsa’s rich buddies – investors, really – are similarly clueless and callous as they engage in their own wheeling and dealing. The only normal-seeming people in the whole whirl are the various minor characters who drift in and out, and the convent-raised daughter and the shy, accented tutor
The story becomes one of reconciliation between father and daughter, something that feels very Wes Anderson as well. This all takes place in a fantasy world where plenty of more-than-unlikely things take place, but Anderson has human truths underneath as well, along with commentary on extreme wealth.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME opens Friday, June 6, in theaters.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars
